Tag Archives: Permanent partial disability awards

In order to fully understand your Permanent Partial Disability evaluation, you need to know the meaning of a few of the important terms used by the rating doctors: AMA Guide to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, 5th Edition- This is the book that the rating doctors in Nevada must use when determining the injured worker’s percentage … Continue reading 7 Useful Definitions for Understanding Your PPD Evaluation→

As you know, I have been working with a group of dedicated workers’ comp attorneys to try to defeat some nasty bills that would significantly cut your benefits. Specifically, Assembly Bill 229 would require that rating doctors use the 6th edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairments instead of the … Continue reading Injured Workers’ Opinions Needed NOW!!→

Effective 2/1/15 through 1/31/16, the cost of a permanent partial disability evaluation on a Nevada workers’ compensation claim is $754.62. That is for two body parts. The cervical spine is considered one body part, the thoracic spine another body part, and the lumbar spine would be a separate body part. For each additional body part … Continue reading 2015 Cost of Nevada PPD Exam→

I have had rating issues come up in the past on how to rate injuries to the sacroiliac joint, and fortunately I had two experienced rating doctors reason that they should be rated under the DRE categories for a low back injury. I say fortunately because some rating doctors would have taken the position that … Continue reading Rating for Sacroiliac Joint- Nevada PPD→

Virginia : The primary purpose of my blog posts is to inform Nevada’s injured workers about the law and the claims process. However, I occasionally like to offer my readers from the workers’ compensation industry a more detailed analysis of a current issue that requires a working familiarity with Nevada workers compensation claims. The … Continue reading Dr. Pirruccello Explains How to Rate Spinal Injuries→

Forgive me for not explaining the word apportionment sooner in my past blog posts about permanent partial disability awards on Nevada workers’ compensation claims. It’s a bad word, and it means subtraction from the percentage of impairment. It the rating doctor writes in his report that he found you have a 10% whole body impairment, … Continue reading What’s An Apportionment of Your PPD Award?→

Test your knowledge of permanent partial disability awards on Nevada workers’ compensation claims with the following quiz. I will post the answers next week with explanations. Have fun! Quiz Time- How Much Do You Know About PPD’s in Nevada? True or False? Even if an injured worker has a surgery … Continue reading Quiz on Nevada Work Comp PPD Awards→

The workers’ compensation community lost one of the most authoritative and fairest rating physicians on November 30, 2013. Richard Kudrewicz, M.D. , or Dr. K, as most of us called him, performed about ten times as many permanent partial disability evaluations on Nevada injured workers as most of the rating physicians on the DIR’s rotating … Continue reading Rating Physician Richard Kudrewicz Dies→

I looked at a very interesting award calculator devised by a Maryland attorney based on his review of thousands of work comp awards in Maryland. It asks the injured worker to put a number from 1 though 10 on the level of pain and interference with activities for their injury,r the average weekly … Continue reading What’s My Nevada Claim Worth?→

30 days after your doctor says you are stable and ratable, your adjuster must send you a letter scheduling your PPD exam. (The exam however, doesn’t have to take place within 30 days.) NRS 616C.490(2). 14 days after your rating exam, the rating doctor should send the rating report to the adjuster. NRS 616C.490(6). 14 … Continue reading Time Line for Permanent Partial Disability Awards→

Effective February 1, 2013, the Nevada fee schedule that governs health care providers under the Nevada workers’ compensation system, raised the PPD (permanent partial disability) reimbursement to $718.96. If the rating physician is rating more than two body parts, he or she can charge an additional $240.11 for each additional body part. For … Continue reading Cost of Rating Exams Up Again: Get It Right the First Time→

Inguinal hernias are common work-related injuries for men, often caused by increased abdominal pressure during heavy lifting. According to the November/December 2012 AMA Guides Newsletter, men have a 27% lifetime risk of an inguinal hernia. Genetics, overall body conditioning, and development of a person’s abdominal musculature have a lot to do with risk of a … Continue reading Are Hernias Ratable?→

Injured workers, employers, and even doctors on workers’ comp provider lists in Nevada remain confused about whether an injured worker who is able to return to work full duty is entitled to a permanent partial disability award. Depending on the injury, an injured worker may be entitled to a rating evaluation and an award, even … Continue reading Am I Entitled to a PPD Award If I’m Released Full Duty?→

If your treating physician on your accepted workers’ compensation claim in Nevada reports to your claims adjuster that you may have a ratable impairment, you should be scheduled for an impairment evaluation 30 days later. This evaluation, also called a rating, will be done by one of the 138 doctors and chiropractors who have been … Continue reading Should I Agree to the Insurer’s Rating Doctor?→

Each year the WCS Medical Unit of the Division of Industrial Relations (DIR) updates the Medical Fee Schedule that determines the fees for medical services, including impairment evaluations. Effective February 1, 2012, the current 138 authorized rating doctors may charge $693.31 for up to two body parts. $231.54 is chargeable for each additional body part. For example, an … Continue reading Expensive to Obtain a Second Rating→

Just before Thanksgiving, the Nevada Supreme Court published a turkey of a decision that robs injured workers of disability award money. In Public Agency Compensation Trust v. Blake, 127 Nev. Adv. Op. 77 (2011), the court invalidated a long-standing DIR regulation that addressed how rating doctors are to account for a prior PPD award for a re … Continue reading Terrible New Decision for Injured Workers on PPD Ratings→

The most recent edition of the local magazineNevada Business has incorrect information from a local insurance agency on how permanent partial disability awards (PPD) are determined under Nevada law. The sidebar in the article states that Nevada has workers’ compensation laws that are pro business and that favor the employer, and I agree with that overall observation. However, … Continue reading Employers Misinformed About PPD Awards→

There were 5,528 permanent partial disability ratings done in Nevada in fiscal year 2010, according to a recent email to me from the Medical Unit of the Workers’ Compensation Section (WCS) of DIR. The Research and Analysis people at the WCS are not done compiling the data on the total number of claims filed for fiscal year 2010, but they … Continue reading PPD Evaluations: Should You Have One?→

Click here to read my latest article on how to get a second rating evaluation when you think the PPD percentage offered by the rating doctor is wrong. Please note that this information is offered as general information and is not intended as legal advice as to your particular claim. There may be options … Continue reading 7 Steps to a Second PPD Rating→

Effective February 1, 2011, the cost of a permanent partial disability evaluation and report will be $673.12. The cost is set by the Division of Industrial Relations. If more than two body parts are evaluated by the rater, an additional $224.80 is added. This cost is the same regardless of whether it is the insurer … Continue reading Cost Increase for PPD Evaluations→

Whether or not you are entitled to receive a permanent partial disability award for your low back strain depends on the following three factors: 1. Whether your treating physician writes after your final visit that you may have a ratable impairment. Your insurance adjuster will only schedule a rating exam if your treating physician checks a box on the physician progress … Continue reading Low Back Strain: Am I Entitled to a PPD Award?→

The Workers’ Compensation Section of the Division of Industrial Relations (DIR) reported in their winter newsletter that an average of 464 ratings are sent in each month. Nevada law requires insurers to send a copy of all PPD evaluation reports to DIR. As of December 1, 2010, there were 141 rating doctors who were on DIR’s rotating list of … Continue reading PPD Awards in Nevada: Only a Few Are Reviewed→

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About Virginia Hunt

Virginia L. Hunt is a Nevada attorney with over fifteen years’ experience in workers’ compensation law. She began in this practice area by working as an associate general counsel for the former SIIS, and was then appointed by the governor to serve as an administrative appeals officer,

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are very short for injured workers, so you should not delay seeking the advice of an attorney to guide you.